Ask Phoebe: Funds barrier to tackling motorway din

The Transport Agency has developed a programme that aims to address noise level issues of communities near Auckland's motorway. Photo / Dean Purcell

I notice there are sound barriers along the Northwestern Motorway adjacent to the built up areas, with the exception of Kingsland from the Waima St overbridge to New Bond St. It is very noisy in the nearby properties (hard to hear the phone from the back yard etc). Why has this section not been done, (there is a bank on the Arch Hill side so there should be little problem from the reflected noise) and what is planned to be done about it? Charles Edward, Auckland.

The NZ Transport Agency says it acknowledges that there are sections of the Auckland motorway network where communities are likely to be exposed to elevated levels of noise. The Transport Agency has developed a programme that aims to address this issue and is seeking funding approval to allow it to implement the programme.

The area of Kingsland from the Waima St overbridge to New Bond St is one area identified as a location that would benefit from retrofitting sound barriers, although there are other areas that have been identified as having higher priority across the city - particularly along the Southern and Northern Motorways. Even with a well-developed business case, there is no guarantee the Transport Agency's request for funding will be approved. There is a limit on the money available, and it says its application must be assessed against numerous other bids for funds for road transport related projects - not just in Auckland but from across New Zealand.

This means that at present, the Transport Agency is unable to give any certainty about when retrofitting noise barriers in the area can be undertaken.

What is killing the Norfolk Island pines? There are sick trees on the North Shore and I've seen them up at Ngunguru. They are losing foliage from the top down and some people are topping them. Anne Rimmer, Rothesay Bay, and Rod McCallum, North Shore.

This is not a new thing, apparently. A report seven years ago by the New Zealand Plant Protection Society concluded that top dieback in Norfolk Island pine appears to be widespread and has been recorded for a number of years. "No single causal organism was established as causing the top dieback. A number of abiotic factors may be contributing to the dieback including wind, lightning, hail, frost, drought, temperature fluctuations, pollutants or a combination of the aforementioned."

For more information click here.

At the traffic lights on Northcote Point where Queen St turns on to Onewa Rd, there is often a green light allowing you to turn left on to Onewa Rd. There is also a sign attached to the lights saying "Turning traffic give way to pedestrians". When the lights are green, who has right of way - pedestrians or cars?
Sandy McNeur, Northcote.

Pedestrians, as the sign indicates. At no time may motorists drive over pedestrians just because the light is green.

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